K-State Electronic Theses, Dissertations, and Reports: 2004 -
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/2097/4
This is the collection for doctoral dissertations and masters theses and reports submitted electronically by K-State students. Electronic submission of doctoral dissertations was required beginning Fall semester 2006. Electronic submission for masters theses and reports was required beginning Fall 2007. The collection also contains some dissertations, theses, and reports from the years 2004 and 2005 that were submitted during a pilot test project. Some items before 2004 have been digitized and are available in K-State Electronic Theses, Dissertations, and Reports: pre-2004. Check the Library catalog for dissertations, theses, and reports not found in these collections.
All items included in this collection have been approved by the K-State Graduate School. More information can be found on the ETDR Information Page. Items within this collection are protected by U.S. Copyright. Copyright on each item is held by the individual author.
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Item Open Access Implications of smart spraying technology on the United States pesticide industry(2025) Frederes, MaxThis thesis investigates the financial and environmental impact of introducing “smart spraying” technologies on various stakeholders within the row crop agriculture industry. Smart spraying incorporates cameras and artificial intelligence to sense weeds and only apply herbicides in those areas. The primary focus is to analyze the future implications of these technologies on the amount of active ingredient applied to common herbicides used in corn and soybean production. By examining these factors, the research aims to provide valuable insights that enable farmers, custom applicators, retailers, distributors, basic manufacturers, and policy makers to formulate mid- and long-term strategies. The study employs a comprehensive approach, incorporating quantitative data analysis and qualitative assessments to evaluate the potential economic benefits and challenges associated with smart spraying technologies. The findings highlight significant shifts in market dynamics, offering a consideration for stakeholders navigating the evolving landscape of agricultural weed control.Item Open Access Affordable landscapes: designing cost-effective and comfortable landscapes in Cottonwood Falls(2025) TylerWhile innovative housing can be extremely beneficial for communities in need of affordable homes, these houses often ignore what can be done to make the surrounding landscape more sustainable and innovative. The outdoor living space is essential to the well-being of the residents, and a well-designed landscape can provide a multitude of benefits to the ecosystem as a whole. It can expand the home and encourage residents to be more active in their community. As housing in the United States is becoming increasingly unaffordable, more attention is being paid to public and private initiatives related to lowering housing costs. These strategies relate to house size, neighborhood layout efficiencies related to density and infrastructure, land acquisition costs, environmental regulation and compliance, and a host of other factors. Establishing and maintaining the landscape surrounding residential structures can also be a dominant part of monthly housing costs. While this report primarily focuses on affordability in the landscape, decisions on housing configuration play a large role. For example, if vehicle access and parking are spatially decoupled from individual homes, more flexibility for housing clustering is possible which has implications on how the surrounding landscape is designed and maintained. This report outlines how the costs of traditional residential landscapes can be reduced yet still be environmentally responsible and visually appealing. To best create guidelines to help these communities, it is important to assess current conditions. Forming a landscape profile of the target cities can help determine what will be needed. In addition, gathering information concerning maintenance and design services that are available, local plant nursery selection, and water usage data will help inform the guidelines. Cottonwood Falls, Kansas was chosen as an example community to create projective designs focusing on affordability. Traditional outdoor landscapes surrounding residential areas are typically composed of turfgrass lawns with low biodiversity, high maintenance costs, and negative environmental impacts. To assist homeowners, developers, and cities create more innovative landscapes to complement and support new affordable housing prototypes, this project will propose landscape guidelines that are aesthetic and support the enjoyment of comfortable outdoor spaces.Item Open Access Multilingual and Multicultural Backgrounds: An Exploration of Language Attitudes toward Restrictive Language Policies at the College Level(2025) McCord, AnnRestrictive language policies are formed by language ideologies that prevail among communities, along with the individual attitudes that support the furthering of language ideologies, whether supportive of or adverse to multilingual interests. Currently, the literature demonstrates that both second language learners (L2s) and heritage language learners of Spanish (HLLs) may perceive the restriction of language policies negatively, although some results have been mixed, yielding both positive and negative student responses (Shvidko, 2017; Vidana, 2020; Valdés, 2023). The types of language policies reviewed in current studies are limited to rules at the local, institutional level– typically taking place in a university setting. For language instructors, previous research shows they may consider the challenges standard language ideologies pose for the linguistic practices of HLLs– within the bounds of Spanish second language courses or language courses designed specifically for the needs of HLLs (Showstack, 2024). In a policymaking role as an instructor, Showstack (2024) determined that instructors' personal and linguistic backgrounds play a large role in their classroom policies and legitimation of HLLs’ linguistic practices. Until now, the attitudes of several student profiles (L2s and HLLs) and their instructors (language faculty) towards language policies at the state and federal levels have yet to be explored in a cross-sectional study. Furthermore, to what extent teachers’, L2s’, and HLLs’ personal and linguistic histories play a role in their understanding of language ideologies and attitudes towards the policies that embody them remains unknown. This study builds upon the small corpus of studies related to restrictive language policies, language ideologies, and language attitudes to examine the extent to which participants' upbringings, educational experiences, and professional preparation could affect their views towards restrictive language policies.Item Open Access Environmental Risk Factors and Cancer Incidence in Rural Central Kansas(2025) Romang, Luke DavidGroundwater contamination is a global concern in agricultural regions and can lead to adverse health effects for affected populations. In central Kansas, three predominantly agricultural counties exhibit notably high cancer incidence rates compared to the state average. This study investigates potential links between land use practices, groundwater contamination, and elevated cancer rates in these counties while also assessing the role of radon exposure. Additionally, we sought to identify factors controlling contaminant occurrence and distribution in local groundwater. We collected 56 groundwater samples, deployed 39 indoor radon tests, and conducted 65 household cancer surveys. A GIS-based buffer analysis using CDL and NLCD land use datasets was performed to explore potential associations between land use and groundwater contamination. Geochemical analyses were used to evaluate possible controls on contaminant occurrence, including pH, redox conditions, and water-rock interactions. Our findings indicate that redox state is the primary control on groundwater geochemistry and contaminant distribution. Evaporation was a key factor influencing groundwater chemistry in Russell County, while water-rock interactions were more significant in Lincoln and Ellsworth County. In the majority of the study area, nitrate and uranium concentrations exceeded EPA and WHO maximum contaminant levels, and 48.7% of radon measurements exceeded the EPA action level of 4 pCi/L. Although no clear correlations were found between agricultural land use and contaminant occurrence, a positive association was observed between open-water land cover and nitrate concentrations. Our cancer data reveals that 64% and 77% of households surveyed in Lincoln and Russell counties, respectively, reported cancer within the household. Additionally, 83% of participants in Lincoln County have a family history of cancer. In Russell County, 6% of cases were in individuals under 20 years old, while in Ellsworth County, 18% were in individuals aged 20-40. This study provides preliminary correlational evidence linking environmental factors to cancer causation and contributes cancer data for the region, offering a glimpse of potential environmental cancers that might guide future studies and provide a framework for future public health guidelines.Item Open Access A Tropical Approach to Ising Problems(2025) Ortiz, JoseTropical geometry offers a piecewise-linear framework that translates algebraic and combinatorial structures into polyhedral geometry. In this dissertation, we explore applications of tropical and polyhedral methods to the analysis of spin systems, particularly the Ising model on graphs. Each spin configuration of a graph with n vertices corresponds to a vertex of the n-cube, and the energy associated to these configurations defines a Laurent polynomial whose Newton polytope encodes all interaction and external field parameters. We show that the tropicalization of this polynomial captures the loci in parameter space where multiple spin configurations minimize the system's energy—so-called degeneracy loci. These loci are described by tropical hypersurfaces, whose combinatorial types are determined by faces of the secondary polytope of the n-cube. Through this connection, vertex-state interactions naturally parameterize regular subdivisions of the cube, and ground-state degeneracies are encoded by the dual secondary fan. We further construct new polytope, whose vertices reflect both spin states and interaction parities, and provide a facet classification for graphs built from trees and cycles. This polyhedral perspective reveals a natural moduli space for studying phase transitions, optimization, and combinatorial symmetries in discrete physical systems.Item Open Access Inferencing with sparse spatio-temporal data in biological systems(2025) Tharzeen, AabilaSpatio-temporal data analysis plays a crucial role in many scientific domains, including biological systems, earth sciences, autonomous vehicles, and many others, providing critical insights into how spatially coherent entities evolve over time. Particularly in biological systems, accurately understanding the underlying cause-effect relationships requires systematic exploitation of both spatial and temporal variations. One of the major challenges in biological systems is that available data can be limited due to high experimental costs, ethical considerations, or logistical constraints and can hinder accurate modeling of the underlying complex spatio-temporal phenomena. Classical statistical approaches, while interpretable, frequently struggle to model complex nonlinear dependencies, whereas purely data-driven machine learning (ML) methods risk overfitting and poor generalization when dealing with limited data. Thus, addressing challenges associated with sparse spatio-temporal data is crucial to reliably inferring meaningful insights from biological systems. This dissertation addresses challenges associated with sparse spatio-temporal inference by systematically integrating uncertainty quantification (UQ) into ML frameworks specifically tailored for biological systems. Missing data is often handled by imputation based on available observations. However, the missingness itself can contain critical information. The imputation can introduce bias and information loss, while failing to effecttively capture the underlying spatio-temporal relationships. To address this “ imputation dilemma," this dissertation proposes and theoretically analyzes a novel Informative Missing Indicator Method (IMIM) specifically designed for neural networks. IMIM helps decide when imputation should occur without introducing bias or loss of information in the data. Furthermore, a graph neural network combined with a recurrent neural network-based spatio-temporal imputation framework is developed to systematically capture spatio-temporal relationships, significantly enhancing predictive capabilities in downstream tasks by effectively increasing the amount of informative data available. Additionally, learning ML models from limited data can also be challenging due to the high risk of overfitting and poor generalizability. To mitigate these issues, this dissertation introduces innovative methods to integrate prior knowledge that represents high-level abstractions of natural phenomena into ML frameworks either as observational bias or learning bias. This ensures that model predictions conform to known scientific principles. The framework also facilitates inference of uncertain parameters not directly observable from data using the uncertainty quantified on the model predictions. In safety-critical biological applications, confidence in predictions is as crucial as prediction accuracy itself. Therefore, recognizing the critical importance of uncertainty quantification, this dissertation presents a generic, task-agnostic UQ framework utilizing neural stochastic differential equations (Neural SDEs). This framework analytically captures epistemic uncertainty in both traditional neural networks and graph neural networks, thereby enhancing model reliability and interoperability. Additionally, this dissertation proposes an uncertainty-guided active learning framework that analytically propagates spatio-temporal measurement uncertainty to strategically select the most informative samples. This approach effectively reduces overall prediction uncertainty, optimizing resource usage and improving predictive accuracy. The methods developed in this dissertation are highly beneficial for healthcare and other data-scarce, safety-critical biological applications where reliability, accuracy, and informed decision-making are essential.Item Embargo Water Absorption and Dough Rheology of High Amylose Wheat Flour in Relation to Bread Making Quality and Digestibility(2025) Smith, RileyThe health benefits of dietary fiber (DF) are well recognized. Yet, a large gap still exists between the recommended daily intake (28-42 g / day) and the amount that is actually consumed in the US and similarly in the world. Wheat-based foods (e.g. bread, pasta, noodles) supply about 20% of food energy for the world population. People are eating more whole grains, but many consumers still prefer foods made from refined wheat flour. These foods are low in DF and resistant starch (RS). RS functions as DF; as it is a starch fraction that is not digested or absorbed in the small intestine in healthy individuals rather fermented in the large intestine, producing short chain fatty acids with health benefits. It is difficult to make wheat-based staple foods with high DF and RS, retaining low or slow digestion, and have good sensory properties. The starch in normal wheat (about 25-30% amylose) is highly digestible. Recently, a high-amylose wheat (HAW) was developed. This is game-changing because the significant increase in amylose results in a high RS content (low digestibility) in refined wheat flour. A knowledge gap pertaining to the increased amylose content in relation to the dough rheology of HAW flour has been identified for this study. The objectives of the first part of this study were to investigate the water absorption and viscoelastic properties of hard red spring (HRS) HAW flour dough (58.90% amylose content), comparing with normal HRS and hard red winter (HRW) flour doughs. The regular wheat flours showed an average of 62.8% compared to HAW’s 79.1% for optimal water absorption across all empirical mixing methods. The effects of arabinoxylan content on water absorption of wheat flour were also examined. The colorimetric measurement of arabinoxylans in each flour revealed that the HAW flour had 1.05-1.39% more total arabinoxylans. Solvent retention capacity of sucrose and frequency sweep assessments before and after xylanase hydrolysis revealed that arabinoxylans were contributing to the heightened water absorption. The dough rheological measurements also showed an increase in absorption time as the larger amount of water was distributed, resulting in a tougher dough at the beginning of mixing. Additionally, the HAW flour produced a dough that had statistically similar viscoelasticity to normal wheat doughs when optimally hydrated. With the HAWs Mixograph and Farinograph’s 4 min and 5.62 min dough development times there were no statistical differences identified compared to the HRS wheat flour. The use of HAW flour and solubilization of water unextractable arabinoxylans also decreased the doughs resistance to deformation and recoverable strain. The high level of amylose in wheat flour leads to increases of RS and DF contents. The objectives of the second part of this study were to determine the optimal water absorption of HAW flour for bread making quality and starch digestibility. Bread made with HAW flour had a decreased volume, crumb structure, and lightness while increasing initial firmness compared to normal HRS and HRW wheat breads. The HAW bread had a specific volume of 4.61ml/g compared to the normal wheats average 5.91ml/g, resulting from a significant decrease in C-Cell number of cells data with 6610.3 cells compared to regular wheats averaged 7371.8 cells identified. The textural profile analysis of the bread crumb also revealed the bread crumb to be firmer than the regular wheat breads at the end of cooling. The use of DSC and XRD analysis showed the increased firmness to be associated with the heightened amylose content rapidly re-associating during the cooling period, increasing short-term retrogradation, while the limited amylopectin retrogradation produced insignificant long-term retrogradation. Xylanase treatment showed significant improvement to long-term firmness in breads. The in-vitro digestibility revealed a significant decrease in digestibility of starch in bread made with HAW flour due to significant increases in re-association (retrogradation) of amylose and lipid complexing of amylose molecules.Item Open Access Integration of wearable sensors into sensory room therapies for children with developmental challenges(2025) Movazzaf Gharehbagh, BitaWearable sensor technologies are becoming powerful tools in healthcare and therapy, especially for children with disabilities such as autism or sensory processing disorders. These devices can track a person’s heart rate, body temperature, movement, stress level, and even their location. When used in sensory rooms, special spaces designed to help children feel calm or focused, wearable sensors can make the therapy more personal and effective. For example, if a child is feeling stressed, the room’s lights, music, or activities can adjust automatically to help the child feel better. This creates a smart, interactive space where therapy responds to the child’s real needs in real time. This report explores how wearable sensors can improve sensory room therapy by offering three key benefits: tracking where the child is in the room, monitoring their physical and emotional responses, and recording behavior for long-term review. Examples include a spinning toy with sensors for children who show repetitive behaviors, and GPS-based systems that track which therapy zones a child visits most. These technologies help therapists understand what works best for each child and plan better therapy sessions. The goal is to make therapy more responsive, safe, and tailored to the needs of each child.Item Open Access Kansas Agricultural Education Teacher Priority Differences Among Early-, Mid-, And Late-Career Teachers And Among Traditionally And Alternatively Certified Teachers(2025) Lehmann, EmmaMentoring programs have been and continue to be used heavily for beginning Agricultural Education Teachers in assisting them through the ups and downs of teaching. However, it is becoming increasingly important to continue mentorships for teachers past their beginning years as there are still challenging aspects to the career. Due to little knowledge of mentorship programs for mid- and late- career ag teachers it is imperative to understand their needs and priorities of their professional and personal lives. The purpose of this study was to determine the priorities of early-, mid- and late-career Kansas Ag Teachers as well as those who are traditionally and alternatively certified. Forty Kansas Agriculture Teachers completed and turned in an agriculture teacher priorities instrument. Teachers within one to five years of teaching are considered early career teachers, their most important and high importance priorities were teaching local daily classes, local FFA activities, CDEs, family life, and designated family time of one-and-a-half days. While mid-career teachers in years six to fifteen place their most important and high importance priorities in daily lessons, local and above FFA activities, and being good neighbors. As for late-career teachers in years sixteen plus their most and high importance priorities included daily lessons, local FFA activities, participating in professional development, developing course outlines and calendars, family life, and designated family time of one-and-a-half days. Overall, daily classes, local FFA activities, family life, and dedicating one-and-a-half days to family time was determined the most important or a high importance priority for all career stages of teachers. Traditionally certified teachers determine daily lessons, local and above FFA activities, CDEs, and family time as their most important and high importance priorities. While most important and high importance priorities of alternatively certified teachers were daily lessons, professional development, family time, designating one-and-a-half days to family time, and having a second job or employment. Data shows that traditionally and alternatively certified teachers agreed daily classes, personal leisure time, family time, dedicating one-and-a-half days of family time, and having a second means of income or employment were the most important or high importance priority items. This information will assist in developing and altering mentoring programs and professional development opportunities for teachers in various stages and on different paths of certification within their professional career.Item Open Access Synthesis, characterization and elucidating the role of secondary coordination sphere in transition metal-based calixpyrrole and salixpyrrole complexes(2025) Ahmed, Md TofayelClimate change has become a burning issue due to its increasing severe impacts on the environment. The largest contributor to climate change is global greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels. It is hypothesized that higher temperatures, increase in sea level, severe storms, loss of species, increased drought, scarcity of food, health threats are the consequences of the ongoing climate change. To combat these negative impacts, hydrogen is a favorable alternative fuel source as this is a clean and environmentally benign energy source with the highest gravimetric energy density compared to all the chemical fuels. Researchers have been inspired by hydrogenase enzymes and efforts have been made to mimic the catalytic active site of this biological system. In view of this, three nickel-based calixpyrrole complexes were reported with various amino pendant groups (NHC(O)CH3 and NHC(O)OC(CH3)3) and non-pendant group in the secondary coordination sphere. All three complexes displayed some catalytic activity for HER in the presence of anilinium tetrafluoroborate as a proton source. However, these catalysts performed poorly compared to the previously reported nickel calixpyrrole catalyst with pendant amine groups. These complexes lack stability under the reaction conditions and exhibited pronounced sensitivity to the scanning window. Upon removal of the complex from the solution, rinse test results showed rapid decomposition of the heterogeneous catalytic species. These results provide important insights into the design of molecular catalyst for HER that pendant hydrogen donor/acceptor moieties are not sufficient to regulate local proton transport in interfacial environments. It is extremely important to incorporate a group in the secondary coordination sphere that can shuttle protons from the reaction medium to the electrode surface. A novel monometallic palladium salixpyrrole complex was synthesized following Schiff-base reaction and using calixpyrrole starting material and salicylaldehyde. The 1H NMR and single crystal X-ray crystallography data matched with a previously reported unsymmetric cofacial salixpyrrole catalyst which is catalytically efficient for HER. Homo- and hetero-bimetallic salixpyrrole systems should be synthesized, fully characterized, and electrochemical studies should be carried out to fully elucidate the reactivity and mechanism towards HER.Item Open Access Accused, Exiled, Acquitted: Surviving Witchcraft Charges in Colonial New England(2025) Jansonius, MakenzieBy analyzing individual trials rather than collective panics, this study reveals the calculated nature of witchcraft accusations in maintaining social order amid frontier conflicts, imperial tensions, and religious anxieties through the case studies of three colonial women: Mary Staples of Fairfield, CT, Katherine Harrison of Wethersfield, CT, and Mary Webster of Hadley, MA. Unlike most scholarship surrounding the witch trials that took place in New England during the 17th century, this research investigates how these women successfully navigated the witchcraft accusations brought against them. Building upon gendered analyses pioneered by Carol F. Karlsen while incorporating the legal and regional approaches utilized by more recent scholarship in the field, this thesis seeks to demonstrate that witch trials functioned as a way to eliminate specific socially marginalized individuals rather than cull divergence in one fell swoop. The cases of Mary Staples, Katherine Harrison, and Mary Webster reveal the ways in which accusations of witchcraft functioned as tools of social control wielded against those that defied community norms. The Puritan elite’s near-obsession with diabolism coupled with the laity’s preoccupation with maleficium created a volatile legal and social landscape in which accusations were simultaneously religiously, personally, and politically motivated. Studying women who survived the accusations against them provides unique insights that would be unavailable when focusing on only the trials that ended in execution. The three case studies I have chosen highlight the limitations of patriarchal power structures and reveal points of flexibility within seemingly rigid systems. The cases of Staples, Harrison, and Webster highlight the agency of the accused, revealing how women actively participated in their own defense.Item Open Access Design, synthesis, characterization, and catalytic evaluation of unsymmetric Schiff-Base calixpyrrole transition metal complexes for hydrogen evolution(2025) Manamalage, SachithraRecently, considerable advancements have been achieved in developing new molecular electrocatalysts for the production of hydrogen, such as understanding their mechanisms, factors that affect the catalytic reaction, etc. Hydrogen presents itself as a potential fuel substitute due to being a renewable energy source with zero carbon emissions, having a maximum gravimetric energy density to replace petroleum and other petroleum products. This work demonstrates the successful design, formulation, and electrochemical H2 evaluation of a novel mono- and bimetallic Schiff-base complexes bearing unsymmetric ligands derived from a calixpyrrole framework, developed as electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The introduction of chemically distinct coordination binding pockets, such as salen or imidazole (termed salixpyrrole and imixpyrrole, respectively), has enabled a straightforward pathway to coordinate various transition metals into the secondary coordination sphere, leading to the construction of tunable metal complexes with enhanced catalytic properties. Both monometallic (2) and bimetallic (3) salixpyrrole complexes were found to be catalytically active in the presence of p-toluenesulfonic acid (pTSA). Mechanistic investigations indicated that 2 follows a second-order dependence on acid and first-order dependence on catalyst, whereas 3 operates via a distinct pathway. The bimetallic species exhibits exceptional catalytic performance with a TOF of 4640 s-1 and significantly lower overpotential of 0.39 V, emphasizing the benefit of incorporating a second metal center into the catalyst framework. The imixpyrrole system (4), on the other hand, was developed by including an imidazole pendant group into the ligand scaffold and shown to be catalytically active for HER in the presence of various acids. Three different acid sources (anilinium.BF4, imidazolium.BF4, triethylammonium.BF4) with varying pKa were selected, and HER activity was systematically evaluated in THF. Complex 4 displayed PCET behavior with a KIE value of 6.45 in the presence of weak acid and a more classical pathway (KIE =1.06) with stronger acid anilinium. The highest TOF of 33040 s-1 with a lower overpotential value of 0.53 V and a faradaic efficiency of 99.3% was achieved with anilinium. Although complex 4 behaves homogeneously in the presence of both anilinium and triethylammonium acid, it displayed heterogeneous behavior with imidazolium, demonstrating the profound impact of proton source on catalytic efficiency and mechanism. A stepwise metalation strategy to synthesize heterobimetallic Schiff-base complexes was investigated next. A successful incorporation of redox-inactive Zn (II) and redox-active Cu(I) ions into the secondary coordination sphere of the imixpyrrole system resulted in two diamagnetic heterobimetallic complexes (5 and 6). The electrochemical features provide insight into metal-metal synergism, pointing to enhanced HER potential. Collectively, this work provides a new blueprint for the rational design of electronically tunable, unsymmetric Schiff-base complexes capable of efficient proton reduction. It highlights the essential roles of ligand asymmetry, proton source, and multimetallic cooperativity in governing catalytic performance, laying the foundation for the future development of next generation HER catalysts.Item Open Access Perspectives on music performance anxiety at the university level: A comprehensive guide for educating musicians on effective coping strategies(2025) Phillips, GabriellaThis project investigates the cognitive, physiological, and behavioral manifestations of music performance anxiety (MPA) with the goal to create an educational guide of effective coping strategies for musicians. Musicians often face the prevalent obstacle of music performance anxiety (MPA), which can impact their overall well-being and performance quality. I actively experience MPA and understand the various causes and symptoms that come with this challenge. This paper highlights various coping strategies that have been effective for musicians with MPA. I examine different coping mechanisms like mindfulness, and cognitive-behavioral strategies while also practicing performance exposure therapy and deep breathing exercises. Through reviewing the literature, I identified a potential gap within MPA research; musicians often do not learn about MPA through school or private instruction. Without proper training on MPA, teachers are not prepared to handle those symptoms and students miss out on the support and guidance they seek. Throughout this project, I have learned four overarching coping mechanisms that are accompanied by smaller, practical techniques that support their effectiveness: preparation, student/teacher relationships, performance practice, and breathing exercises.Item Open Access Investigating spatial and temporal variability in Whooping Crane habitat selection preference in Kansas and implications for wind energy development.(2025) Okonye, Ifeoma FrancescaThe Whooping Crane (Grus americana) is a federally endangered species that relies on strategically located stopover habitats to complete its long migration between breeding and wintering grounds. Therefore, we need to identify suitable stopover habitats to aid their survival and recovery. Despite conservation efforts, we still don’t know how habitat preferences vary spatially and temporally, which hinders effective planning to balance species recovery with renewable energy development. To address this gap, we built upon recent research using machine learning algorithms to create species distribution models (SDM) for migratory avian species. We created an enhanced habitat suitability model for whooping cranes along the Kansas flyway using Random Forest algorithms, incorporating spatial (latitude/longitude) and temporal (date) variables to capture dynamic habitat use. Telemetry data from 2010–2016 (n = 1,253) were combined with pseudo-absences (n = 2,000) and environmental predictors (e.g., wetland cover, urban proximity) to train the model, which was validated using AUC and out-of-bag error rates. Areas with high wind potential and low conflict with suitable habitats were identified and ranked, while conflict zones with existing turbines were mapped by overlaying high-suitability habitats with current turbine locations from the U.S. Wind Turbine Database, with a 5 km buffer to assess displacement risks. Key results showed the improved model’s robustness (AUC = 0.98), outperforming previous static approaches by showing fine-scale seasonal shifts and spatial variability. Wetland cover was the top predictor in Kansas, while distance from road networks was the driver of habitat selection in Nebraska, reflecting regional landscape differences. Time-series analysis (2010–2016) showed corridor narrowing during drought years and seasonal divergence, with spring migrations using broader pathways than fall. The prediction map showed 75.07% of the study area was unsuitable and low conflict for energy development projects. 24.93% was mid-high conflict and should be designated as critical habitats. The wind-suitability overlay showed western Kansas’s agricultural zones as the optimal low-conflict areas for energy development.Item Open Access Effects of SID Lys:CP ratios, specialty protein products, and hydrolyzed yeast on nursery pig growth performance, fecal characteristics, and antioxidant status(2025) Smallfield, JessicaThis thesis contains three chapters that includes: 1) evaluating the effects of standardized ileal digestible lysine to crude protein (SID Lys:CP) ratios on growth performance of 11- to 25-kg pigs, 2) evaluating the effects of novel specialty soy protein products on growth performance and fecal dry matter (DM) of nursery pigs, and 3) evaluating the effects of hydrolyzed yeast on weanling pig growth performance, fecal characteristics, and stress-related blood antioxidant criteria. Chapter 1 utilized 10,207 nursery pigs in three experiments to determine whether nitrogen (N) is the limiting factor in low protein, amino acid fortified diets, and to evaluate the effects of SID Lys:CP ratios of 11- to 25-kg pigs. Diets formulated to a SID Lys:CP ratio greater than approximately 6.5% decreased feed efficiency (G:F) but adding a N source to low protein diets formulated above this ratio improved G:F. Chapter 2 involved 1,614 pigs in two experiments to evaluate the efficacy of novel specialty soy protein products (soy protein concentrate and thermo-mechanically processed soybean meal) on growth performance and fecal DM of nursery pigs. Ultimately, replacing 25 to 50% of the digestible Lys provided by soybean meal in diets for 5 to 13 kg pigs with specialty soy products improved growth performance, while total replacement resulted in decreased performance. Chapter 3 utilized 360 weanling pigs to evaluate the efficacy of a novel hydrolyzed yeast (HY) product on growth performance, fecal DM, stress-related blood antioxidant criteria, and cytokine production. Overall, feeding 0.04% HY improved G:F. Increasing HY inclusion had no impact on growth performance, but improved early nursery fecal DM. The addition of 0.04% HY with carbadox tended to reduce serum cytokine concentrations. In summary, these experiments provide data on the optimal SID Lys:CP ratio for 11- to 25-kg pigs, the effects of novel soy protein products in nursery pig diets, and the effects of hydrolyzed yeast on nursery pig growth performance, fecal characteristics, stress-related blood antioxidant criteria, and cytokine parameters.Item Open Access Preliminary design and analysis of a sodium-cooled, graphite-moderated TRISO-matrix reactor (SGTR) using OpenMC modeling(2025) BurnsA pin cell of a sodium-cooled, graphite-moderated, thermal TRISO reactor (SGTR) is simulated and analyzed in OpenMC, an open-source Monte Carlo modeling program. The thermal properties, depletion characteristics, and power production capacity for a single pin are detailed and studied in this report, with extrapolation to a reactor comprised of 700 fuel rods. The assembled reactor core is designed to produce 100 MWth, maintains a positive reactivity through the 60th month of operation, and operates at a burnup of 79.5 (GW_d)/(MTU ) during this period. The fuel pin is simulated using a homogenous fuel material mix to approximate varying size TRISO beads embedded in a zirconium matrix at a packing fraction of 0.55. The fuel pin measures 400 cm in length with a radius of 3.6 cm, surrounded by a coolant channel of width 1.314 cm and a 20 cm pitch of graphite moderator between hexagonally arranged pins, and thin layers of stainless-steel cladding line the coolant channel. The reactor design requires 100 fuel pins arrayed among each of its 7 hexagonal subassemblies, such that each pin generates 142.9 kW at operational power. The SGTR reactor yields a core power density of 57.32 MW/m^3 with an initial heavy metal loading of 2263.8 kg Uranium.Item Open Access A higher-order unification implementation for automated theorem proving(2025) Loura, ChristopherHigher-Order Unification is the process for algorithmically establishing equality between typed lambda expressions. This methodology serves as a foundation for numerous automated theorem provers such as Isabelle, λProlog and Carnap. However, Higher-Order Unification is inherently undecidable, with the most state-of-the-art solution being Gérard Huet's semi-decidable higher-order unification algorithm from 1975. This report is an implementation of Huet's Algorithm for higher-order unification. The methodology involves parsing lambda expressions and converting them into De Bruijn index notation to eliminate the need for α-conversion. A β-reduction algorithm then reduces the lambda terms to beta-normal form. A matching tree for the two expressions is created to attempt to unify them through pattern matching and simplification. This implementation, written in the Zig programming language, uses its fast performance and memory optimization to create a performant abstract machine and to leverage the capability of Zig to compile into Webassembly.Item Open Access Incentive structure in telecom supply chain, production diversification, and rural resilience(2025) Sharma, PriyankaRural economies worldwide face the problem of technological isolation and environmental instability, which creates both unprecedented challenges and opportunities for the rural communities seeking resilience in a rapidly changing landscape. This dissertation examines two different yet complementary aspects related to rural economic resilience through the open supply chain of telecommunication network infrastructure and agricultural systems. Rural development has become increasingly central to economic policy as decision-makers recognize its importance to overall economic growth. Although technology offers various solutions to rural resource constraints, telecommunications infrastructure remains disproportionately concentrated in population-dense regions. It creates fundamental disadvantage for rural communities, where businesses and farms need reliable and high-speed connectivity for modern operations. This gap between technological possibilities and rural realities occurs largely from how telecommunications networks are structured. Traditional vertically integrated mobile network supply chains have resulted in high costs, vendor lock-in, and standardized deployment strategies that prioritize dense urban centers while neglecting rural areas. Understanding the incentive structure of mobile telecom network stakeholders is therefore essential for developing viable solutions to bridge digital divide and enable rural regions to participate fully in the economy. The first essay provides a novel game-theoretic analysis of open radio access networks (ORAN) as an alternative telecommunications supply chain architecture. We assess strategic interactions between telecom supply chain stakeholders—mobile network operators (MNOs), network infrastructure suppliers (NIS), and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs)—across three procurement scenarios: (i) Traditional, (ii) Predatory as monolithic radio access networks (MRAN), and (iii) DirectOEM as ORAN. The second essay investigates how agricultural diversification strategies impact farm resilience in Kansas. Through panel data analysis spanning 2002-2022, the research documents that production diversification generally enhances farm income stability and improves financial resilience, especially during moderate drought conditions. It also suggests diminishing returns from diversification under extreme drought scenarios, highlighting diversification's limitations to be a sole risk management strategy. The findings from both studies converge on the importance of strategic adaptation in building rural economic resilience. The telecommunications analysis demonstrates how innovative network architectures and alternate supply chains can improve economic viability even in challenging rural markets, while the agricultural analysis quantifies how production diversification can buffer against unprecedented shocks. Together, these studies offer novel and empirically grounded recommendations for policymakers, network operators, and farmers seeking sustainable rural development pathways in response to technological disruption and environmental change. The research establishes that both technological innovation in telecommunications infrastructure and adaptive agricultural practices represent complementary pathways for strengthening regional economic systems in rural regions in the United States. By evaluating digital connectivity challenges and farm income vulnerabilities in various regions, this dissertation provides a framework to enhance rural regions' adaptive capabilities during shocks.Item Open Access Descendable maps of schemes and generators of derived categories(2025) Zhao, jiayuThis work establishes the theory of descendable morphisms of schemes which were previously introduced by Akhil Mathew for stable∞-categories. We prove properties they have, provide examples, and discuss applications to dimension theory. We explore the connection between descendable maps and generators of derived categories of quasi-coherent sheaves.Item Open Access Electric Vehicle infrastructure and policy for large cities in the Great Plains(2025) Gunderson, IzzyElectric Vehicles (EVs) have taken the world by storm as individual consumers, businesses, and government entities invest and adopt modern EV technology. This study investigates municipal involvement in local Electric Vehicle adoption across the Great Plains. This research was conducted using a multiple case study analysis. Selection of the three case study cities resulted from research into demographic and geographic similarities within the Great Plains. Data was sourced from documents and materials provided by federal, state, municipals entities, and documents from additional EV studies. The analysis was done as a comparative case study analysis to analyze the similarities and differences between the three selected cities. The findings reveal diverse strategies from municipalities including implementing codes for charging infrastructure, partnering with local stakeholders, supporting investment in local EV technologies, adopting EV city fleets, and public education initiatives. These findings provide valuable insights for municipal planners in the Great Plains seeking to develop recommendations for their own local EV infrastructure and policy. This study concludes by providing recommendations for other municipal entities within the region.
